EMERGENCY RISK REDUCTION

On a tranquil Saturday morning, January 13, 2018, at 8:07AM, a message went out to cellphones across the state of Hawaii, signaling an incoming missile. It was a false alarm, but took 38 minutes to correct. Meanwhile panic erupted across this normally idyllic state.  Several lessons were learned, which can help us all.

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency is in charge of emergencies in the state, both natural and human-induced.  As expected, systems software and hardware testing regularly takes place — for numerous threats under jurisdiction of HEMA. This mistake was simple and innocuous: A technician clicked “Missile Launch” on a scroll-down menu rather than “Test Missile Launch”. Once s/he confirmed, the message went out to countless cellphones that a missile had been launched and was inbound toward Hawaii.

Reaction was swift and telling of the general population. Basically, panic ensued.  It is not surprising when one sentence in the text read: ‘This is not a drill.’  Many Hawaiians may have already thought through what to do in the event of a tsunami or hurricane, but despite the North Korean threat, not a nuclear attack.  People ran out of and into buildings. Some hotel guests were herded into basements. Hawaiians hid in bathrooms while filling their tubs with water, or just sheltered in place behind big furniture. On the roads, there were reports of drivers parking inside tunnels, or running red lights, driving on the shoulder, and simply abandoning their cars in search of shelter.

Those who received the text message Saturday AM were forced to immediately answer some questions: Where was the safest, nearest place to shelter, and did they have enough time to get there? Where was their family and could they reach them? What supplies did they need? If a parent, what should I tell my children? Indeed, some of the most harrowing accounts were of parents trying to calm young children who were asking if they were about to die.

Saturday’s false alarm was a real-time test of Hawaii’s readiness for a nuclear attack, which is, in fact, rare in the developed world. Unfortunately, Hawaii didn’t pass the test. Lots of improvements are needed, first on the state side. One state employee shouldn’t have complete control to signal such a response – a second person is needed to confirm. Rescinding the message took 38 minutes – it should have taken 2 minutes max.  Warning sirens didn’t sound, which should have happened, even in this ‘faux-real’ missile attack – state and federal systems must be coordinated.

As to the general population, the event shows an almost total lack of personal preparedness for this type of emergency. As I’ve said in other blogs, don’t expect the state or fed to make preparations for you, or to respond in a disaster. You and your loved ones will be on your own. There are two choices: Prepare, or Panic.  Let’s choose Preparedness. Questions for our own households: Where we will go? How will we get there? What we will need for several days? How will we communicate with loved ones? 

The real upside of this event is that emergency managers, social scientists, and other officials now have a real-time case from which to learn and to create better plans for future crises. Let’s hope this opportunity isn’t squandered.